2025 Competition Entry:

Tuppenny Ha’penny Love Song by Chris Manners

Genre

Folk

Artist

Co-writer(s)

no

Performer(s)

Chris Manners: guitar, lead and backing vocals.

Description

Written in one of those ‘for worse . . . for poorer’ times. Happily, fortunes improved.

Bio

Chris Manners has washed elephants in Thailand, delivered newspapers in Rio, marvelled at a volcano in Hawaii, sat in a thousand traffic jams and yawned at countless inter-office memos. He’s been honing his songwriting and performing craft for over 40 years, his work deeply rooted in the English folk tradition and influenced by the likes of Martin Carthy and Nic Jones, Bill Caddick and Jake Thackray.
In Autumn 2024 he released his fourth solo album Bar the Doors and Bang the Shutters Down to excellent reviews.
He lives in West Yorkshire, cut his performing teeth in Barnsley and is a long-time resident at Pete Coe’s Ryburn folk club and with the folk development organisation Ryburn 3 Step. He has performed all over the UK, including Sidmouth and Towersey festivals and West End Theatres. He was also part of the editorial and production team at the now-defunct and much-missed TykesStirrings, the listings magazine for folk music in Yorkshire.

Lyrics

Not one penny in my pocket,
and my shoes are worn right through
this will be the cheapest song
I ever sing for you

If I ever strike it lucky
rich enough to buy the moon
please believe me, I would bring you
a more exclusive tune

All I have is what I bring you
to wish you joy today
but all I have is far too little
for what I want to say

All I have is a tuppenny ha’penny love song
All I have to wish you joy today (Rpt)

If I had a pirate’s treasure
all the harvest of the sea
I could never pay a hundredth
of what you mean to me
All I have is what I bring you . . .
CHORUS

I O U, I O U
I O U, but I wish you joy today

All these years that we’ve been living
over rise and under fall
Cost a lot of side by side
Not so cheap at all
CHORUS
CHORUS
And I wish you joy today – and every day – day after day – day after day.

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